Mr Chirag Dodiya, Founder-CEO of Plorez interacted with Spectralhues on the Indian education system, essentials while founding a start-up, the favourable ecosystem for development of start-ups, problem of Human Resource Management companies are facing and a lot more. Below are the transcripts of the interview:
When education is considered an important backdrop in career, how did you think of founding a company at an age as young as this?
It’s not really a rocket science to found a company at a young age. I guess what facilitated the change for me and work towards my passion was not just internal, but also the ecosystem change in India. As you can imagine that the 80s to 90s were all about landing in the best government jobs and people used to study and work hard to do that. The early 2000’s were all about engineering, medical, etc. Every parent wanted their child to be one of them. But since the early 2010s, there has been a great leap forward in the Indian start-up ecosystem. Many of the students and young professionals are coming forward to work on their own ideas and launch a startup. In my case, I was lucky enough to learn about the ecosystem and connect well with the right people to facilitate this change (although in a very small tiny way). The whole thing comes down to one simple point that currently education is not considered to be a way to judge a person’s intelligence. It is merely a way to gain knowledge either to grow yourself or your company. It just adds an extra wheel to your car.
What are the quintessential things to be taken into consideration while starting a company?
There are a ton of things to take care of while starting up, but it’s all relevant to what you are doing. According to my experience and the things I have learned along the way, is no matter what you are doing, always start with building a great team for your company. Everything else is secondary, not even capital matches the importance of a great team.
How can the youth of our country contribute towards the economic development of our country?
I guess that currently the youth of our country is making the most possible impact in developing India as a global superpower. That adds everyone in the umbrella and not just the entrepreneurs. The easiest and the most promising way, every youth can contribute, is to start following their own dreams. Launch a start-up, work on their ideas, find the dream job, it’s not just about launching a company, but if every student starts following their own path and find happiness in their work the country will definitely grow a lot faster. That being said, the rise of social and enterprise entrepreneurs is in high demand. There is definitely a need for an innovation in that sector.
Besides being an entrepreneur, you are also a part of the Global Youth Foundation, how did that happen?
Around 2 years ago, I met some amazing young entrepreneurs; we were all passionate about helping and developing the student entrepreneurship ecosystem in India. So, in order to do that, we co-founded Global Youth Forum as a facilitator for student entrepreneurship development campaign in India. I guess the best things happen when you are passionate about the work you do, and you have a team that shares the same vision.
Today we see an extreme level of cut throat competition in academics. Ev
en students who score 90% have to reside on the management quota. What is your view on this?
I recently saw the CBSE results and the topper got around 99.2%. This news caught my attention. One student executed suicide for failing in CBSE. This is the most disturbing thing in the Indian education scenario — thousands of students take up this step. On the other hand, I totally agree that current education system is not that bad, but it’s totally out-dated and for that simple reason, I have never given the traditional education system that kind of importance. Rather, learning from practical experience has worked for me. The competition is just going to increase. If not, the government is going to increase the quality of education system. Sadly, we have to live with this for the time being.
With PM Modi hailing India’s office since the past 1 year, do you think that there are active changes in the entrepreneurial structure of our country?
Absolutely, I do think so that there have been many changes that directly or indirectly affect the entrepreneurial structure in India. You can’t understand or get affected by the changes directly. But it does make a difference. For example, the recent changes in the process of registering a company have made a huge difference in the formation of companies. Bringing foreign investors and companies in India has bought about competition as well as opportunities for entrepreneurs and talented professionals in India.
One of the biggest changes is that the Indian companies are ready to compete in the global market – for example, in the mobile industry companies like Xiaomi, Oneplus and many other Chinese companies are making their way in the Indian market, giving a tough competition to India-based Micromax. While on the other hand, in e-commerce industry, Flipkart and SnapDeal are giving Amazon a tough competition to capture the Indian e-commerce sector.
Human Resource management today is the problem common to any company. So, how do you deal with it?
My secret is to find the people who live and breathe the same passion as myself. If, he/she can manage to work as much as I do, I know that person will do whatever it takes to achieve the dream. Because, I prefer to find and invest only in the person who dreams the same things I do and make sure that our visions are aligned. I believe to work as a team that is no less than a family. Human resource management is just a fancy word for managing a family. A start-up is nothing more than a family or team working towards a goal.
Would you say that there is a dearth of government funds for youngsters to start a new company?
The announcement of budget 2015 has brought about 10,000 crore in funding for start-ups based in India. I actually did a whole project on the budget 2015 for entrepreneurs and found countless mistakes in the system. The process that is used by the government to fund start-ups is not clearly specified and therefore it doesn’t reach the entrepreneurs in need. There is definitely a room for improvement.
The recent visit of our PM, overseas, is expected to bring in a lot of foreign investments. Do you think such model of development is effective?
I am not an expert on this subject, but my personal opinion kind of varies in concerning to various topics that it relates to. As India being one of the largest countries with respect to talent and labour force all around the world, bringing foreign investors and companies in India is only opening up India for international growth, whereas it is also harming domestic companies to improve and get ready to compete with the giants. This model has been proven effective in other countries and it does positively affect Indian economy and facilitate growth. How much of this is truth, only time will tell us.
What message would you like to give to our readers, who look up to you as a role model?
For all the youngsters out there, right now, is the best time to take that leap of faith and start working on your dreams. India is supporting entrepreneurship ecosystem and the government is doing all it can to make it easier to do business. Right now, all you need is to take that leap. Good Luck. If I could help you in any way, do let me know through my personal website at www.Chirag.co.
